the United States Supreme Court today took up a key case in the National Abortion debate on whether Idaho's near total abortion ban conflicts with a federal law protecting patients in medical emergencies the decision could affect other states that have put abortion banss in place and while New Jersey isn't one of them democratic congresswoman Mikey Cheryl has signed on to a friend of the court brief with other Congressional Democrats imploring the court to uphold the law Raven Santana report Life Is A Lie they don't care if people die hundreds of abortion rights and anti-abortion protesters flooded the entrance to the US Supreme Court as the justices heard arguments regarding emergency abortion access the court is weighing whether emergency medical treatment and Labor Act should cover emergency abortions even in states where the procedure is banned and the test case comes from Idaho where the state enacted a law which allows a woman to get an abortion only when her life not her health is at risk what if you need an abortion not because you're going to die but because you will lose your uterus and therefore no longer be able to have children that's a reason under Amala where a physician could say okay we need to go ahead and do an abortion under Idaho law you could not do that Kimberly Merson is a professor of law at Rucker law school Merson says this really boils down to one question could a state actually say we will require women in our state to die if they are pregnant and they need an abortion this question of exactly how far states can go is a really significant question and it's one frankly that is not going to just be sorted out on the state level it's going to end up in the Supreme Court the hearing is the latest legal challenge that could impact abortion access across the country here in New Jersey Advocates and lawmakers including congresswoman Mikey Cheryl who is a leading advocate for Reproductive Freedom are urging the court to uphold the law the reproductive Health Care in states that are imposing these Draconian laws is um is getting worse and worse and worse because you have a combination of doctors being afraid to provide basic treatment because of these laws that involve criminal time um if the state disagrees with the decision the doctor made the congresswoman made her remarks alongside doctors and staff at the cooperman Barnabas Medical Center where she also gave birth to her daughter she says laws like Idaho are not only putting a heavy burden on women but they also lead to doctors leaving the state making outcomes even worse for women living there you also then see um doctors in those States saying look I have a hypocritic oath and so I am not going to practice in a hospital like the one we spoke about today where a woman has a miscarriage in the bathroom of the lobby because they won't process her in we are not just talking about elective termination of pregnancy we are talking about women who have failed pregnancies women who have babies that will be nonviable or non-living if they are carried to term pregnancies that endanger the lives of women where they will have lifethreatening bleeding and complications Dr kimmerly poar is an attending physician in the emergency department of the hospital and sees firsthand how this Emergency Care can be the difference between life and death for many moms and that they don't need to wait until they are so critical that it's difficult to take care of them Merson believes the vote could come down to a split decision where it ends up being all women on one side she urges viewers to pay attention to the bigger picture so I hope that as people are watching these cases go through the Supreme Court that they aren't just thinking about whether they believe in abortion or don't believe in abortion but they're also thinking about who gets to decide what rights any of us has um in a whole host of different circumstances for NJ Spotlight news I'm Raven Santana [Music]